Royal Sovereign Laminator/3M Laminate Leaves Line Where Backing Separates

[CreativeUser]

Hello everyone, like the title says, we're using a Royal Sovereign Laminator with 3M laminate it's 8514 or 15 I think... The backing has a new red 3M pattern with just "3M" and no target marks, it's different than all the other 3M lam I've seen, anyways... It's leaving a long line where the backing separates from the laminate. It's the same look as the line when you stop the print, but this is happening before I laminate a print.

So I'll line up my print and start it and in about 4-6 inches the line inevitably comes down. If it's a solid color print it's unusable and the owners have said it's a recent new problem. I think it might be the material. The laminator needs to be calibrated with that scale tension device, but they don't have one. Any other way of calibrating it?

Any ideas what could be causing the line. It's right where the backing separates from the idle bar/tension bar thing. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!

 

[ChrisN]

We use a variety of 3M & MacTac laminates, and we get this line on all of them. Like you noticed, it happens right where the backer separates from the laminate. It has something to do with how the adhesive behaves when it is not pulled off evenly and smoothly, and you can see this effect on regular scotch tape and packing tape also.

A simple work-around is just to run the laminate for a few inches before feeding in your print, so the line will not lay down over the print. We run kraft paper underneath our vinyl to catch any excess laminate, so we just laminate kraft paper for a few inches to catch the separation line..

I think the line will go away eventually (similar to silvering), but don't quote me on this. If anyone does have a method to eliminate this, though, I'm all ears!

 

[CreativeUser]

Thanks for the reply!

The weird thing is I've been doing this for a long time and this shop is the first time I've seen the line on the tension bar, where the backing separates from the laminate. I think it might be that this is very thin, kinda lower end lamination. I haven't noticed it on the higher end laminate we use for wraps or even the matte laminate we use for other varies things. I'll have to check.

Could it be a 'thin mil' problem? I totally know what you mean about the Scotch Tape comparison. I've not seen the line go away in time. Also, we tried using a heat gun to get rid of it, didn't work either. It did lessen the line a bit, but not enough.

The problem with feeding leader paper through every time is that you burn 6-8 inches of laminate every run. That adds up pretty quick. On our laminator I have to burn almost 8 inches of laminate every time. I've seen people web up the laminator IN FRONT of the tension bar. It's a bit more wobbly but you won't get a line, I wouldn't recommend it. Also, you can let the separation float lower, like so it's separating almost on top of the big top roller. But this just shortens the waste.

Really would love to solve this one. I hate wasting material.

Also, any tips on calibrating this machine without one of those little tension scales with the aluminum puller strip?

 

[saratoningraphics]

2024 and I am wondering the same thing......